In our remarkable parental stewardship, there are many ways that
goodly parents can access the help and support they need to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to their children. Let me suggest five things parents can do to create stronger family cultures:
First,
parents can pray in earnest, asking our Eternal Father to help them
love, understand, and guide the children He has sent to them.
Second,
they can hold family prayer, scripture study, and family home evenings
and eat together as often as possible, making dinner a time of
communication and the teaching of values.
Third,
parents can fully avail themselves of the Church’s support network,
communicating with their children’s Primary teachers, youth leaders, and
class and quorum presidencies. By communicating with those who are
called and set apart to work with their children, parents can provide
essential understanding of a child’s special and specific needs.
Fourth,
parents can share their testimonies often with their children, commit
them to keep the commandments of God, and promise the blessings that our
Heavenly Father promises His faithful children.
Fifth,
we can organize our families based on clear, simple family rules and
expectations, wholesome family traditions and rituals, and “family
economics,” where children have household responsibilities and can earn
allowances so that they can learn to budget, save, and pay tithing on the money they earn.
These suggestions for creating stronger family cultures
work in tandem with the culture of the Church. Our strengthened family
cultures will be a protection for our children from “the fiery darts of
the adversary” (1 Nephi 15:24)
embedded in their peer culture, the entertainment and celebrity
cultures, the credit and entitlement cultures, and the Internet and
media cultures to which they are constantly exposed. Strong family
cultures will help our children live in the world and not become “of the
world” (John 15:19).
-Elder L. Tom Perry, "Becoming Goodly Parents," October 2012 General Conference
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